Spazz wrote:There is nothing wrong with a law abiding citizen carrying a gun. We go round in a circle but ill say it again. Law abiding folks who get permits and carry guns are not the criminal element that causes problems with them.
Jared Loughner was a 'law abiding citizen'. Law abiding enough to legally purchase a 9mm semi-automatic Glock that allowed him to kill 6 people, including a 9 year old child.
It sounds to me gyps like you want the government to make a lot of decisions for people and thats not something I can get behind. I dont think either of us will get what we want though gun rights seem to not be going anywhere and the govt always seems to want to tell you what you can and cant do with your body. I think people should be free to make they own decisions on how to live their lives. Guns, fast food ,fast cars, dope ,smoking , hookers and so on should all be decisions that free adults should be allowed to make on their own. If in the process of making these decisions you hurt someone you should be locked up . If you dont hurt anyone than I dont see why a free people shouldnt be allowed to make their own decisions. You might need a nanny state govt telling you what you can and cant do with your body or what you can and cant own but I thinks that is insanity and it seems to be getting worse as the years go by. How do you feel about the war on drugs gyps ? Theres only a few of us in this thread so we might as well let it wander where it may
The problem with this mindset is there's no proactive activity or prevention of the inevitable. It's wait until someone screws up and then punish them after it's already too late. I understand innocent until proven guilty, but this is my problem with guns specifically. No punishment exists until it's too late, and more often than not when something horrible happens it's a quick and passionate decision or a total accident that can cause irreparable damage that wouldn't otherwise occur without them.
I think the war on drugs is utter bs for the same reasons I mentioned before. Drugs only hurt those who choose to partake. I think there's a real problem with certain drugs that spurn violent action that should be regulated, but there are many drugs that should just be left alone and regulated the same as alcohol. I've said a million times I don't do drugs, never really have.. I've smoked pot a handful of times back in the day, but it never really tripped my trigger. Alcohol is my drug of choice on occasion, but again--it's not about what I feel is best for me personally, it's about what I feel is best for the nation as a whole.
And no, I don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do. However, I do feel laws and regulations are necessary for an evergrowing population that continues to be less educated with each generation that passes; that's a fact. Certainly, we've become more tech-savvy, but the core of our educational standards and knowledge per capita has grossly decreased over the last century alone.
Like I said, I'm a practical person. I believe in practical things. Not only are our people slowly getting dumber, we've also evolved into a nation of instant gratification and what we want when we want it just because we can. My belief is that if we don't have the foresight to see where that mindset is heading in a hundred years, we're going to leave a pretty shitty world behind us. We're already the fattest. We already have the highest incarceration rate. We're supposed to be "the best" country in the world, and yet we're nowhere near the top when it comes to education rankings.
We've done so much in the name of defiance and outright bullishness. With blinders on, we've charged ahead calling ourselves the best and the freest, and that we set some imaginary standard for the rest of the world. We aren't, and we don't. There may have been a time when we were the best, but such is the case no more because we've [the average American] become so divided and so ignorant to the rest of the world. We've thrown rationale out the window in the name of "freedom", and we've applied that word so loosely that we have no idea what it actually means anymore. Freedom isn't having or doing what you want when you want with who you want. If there are stricter regulations against guns, is that really impeding your freedom? I certainly don't think so. Because you look at tightening regulation as the government taking your freedom, and I look at it as other citizens stepping on my freedom of feeling secure.
It's subjective. So you don't want the government taking your freedom, and I don't want other citizens taking mine. I'll be honest, it'd be really hard for me to feel free in a place like Detroit. That's not knocking you in any way, but if I feel unsafe walking outside at night I definitely don't feel free. If you really feel like you have to carry a gun around to protect yourself from dangerous people, how free can you possibly be?
People who use their gun rights to threaten other citizens
are stepping on their freedom. And just because
you would never do that doesn't mean that all legal gun owners are like you. I'd say it's 50/50 at best. I personally know more irrational gun owners who got a gun just because they could and/or out of spite than those like you who got them for protection or for sport.. and that includes my dad (who I love) who bought his right when President Obama was elected and joined all the crazy people stockpiling guns like squirrels to acorns just because "gub'ment gon' take mah rights!"
And stop trapping me! I knew it didn't matter how I answered that question you'd retaliate. Something kept flashing at me saying "Danger, Will Robinson", but I figured I'd answer honestly anyway =p
You might be surprised to hear that I lived in WI for 3 years with an ex and actually bought him a gun cabinet for christmas one year. We lived in the north, and he was an avid hunter. I don't have a fear of guns in general. Again, my argument is not that all guns should all disappear forever, but that they have a time and a place, and that there are certain models that don't belong in the hands of your average citizen.